This document defines several terms used to characterize electrical load characteristics and economic aspects of power systems, including:
1. Connected load, maximum demand, demand factor, diversity factor, coincidence factor, load diversity, contribution factor, loss factor, load factor, plant capacity factor, plant use factor, and utilization factor.
2. Types of reserves in power systems including spinning reserve, cold reserve, and hot reserve.
3. Load curves and load duration curves which show the variation of load over time and are useful for determining the maximum demand, energy produced, average loading, and load factor.
4. Several examples are provided calculating metrics like demand factor, average load, energy consumption, reserve capacity,